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Las Vegas Gambling Tips: The Lady M |
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On The Town With Vegas Vic
By: Victor H. Royer
Welcome to Las Vegas! My name is Victor H. Royer, but everyone just calls me Vegas Vic. I was named after that famous neon sign in Downtown Las Vegas, that cowboy with the hat on top of the Pioneer Club, always waving his hand and beckoning to his long love, Sassy Sally, on the other side of the street. I will be writing a few articles for AccessVegas.com, so I hope you enjoy them.
The Lady M
This story is part one of a two-part article. Part two -- The King and I -- will appear in the next issue. Both are stories from the "old Vegas" days, when Sin City was still for gamblers, and not shopping malls and kiddie rides. Just about all the great hotels that once were the staple of Las Vegas are now gone, destroyed in a frenzy of "out with the old and in with the new". Some of the "new" is nice, but in my mind "Vegas" is the way it once was, in the days of the Rat Pack. And so this story is from that era.
It was a cold January day, the week after the New Year's crush of tourists. Among the real gamblers and high rollers, the early weeks in January are often the times when they like to come and play. For any type of gaming, other than live poker, coming to a casino after all the crowds have left is better, and often more profitable. High-stakes players like to be the center of attention, but at the same time most of them dislike being bothered by the gawkers and onlookers.
I was relaxing in my suite at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, overlooking the intersection of Flamingo Road and the Strip. Across the street was the Dunes, with that tall neon sign that ran up and down the sides and then sparkled at the top, illuminating the word "Dunes." On the other corner was the MGM Grand, which was then renamed Bally's, long before the current MGM Grand was built on the site where the old Marina used to be. And on the northeast corner, there was the little Barbary Coast, with its distinctive turn-of-the-19th-century San Francisco-style Barbary coast veneer, and to the left of it was the bright flower sign of the Flamingo. This was the sight greeting me as I rolled out of my bed and into the in-room pool.
My room was one of those "reserved" suites that most people don't even know exist. The private suites at Caesars Palace were enormous, equipped with just about everything you can think of. Television sets that rose from hidden places and then sank back again out of sight with the push of a button. Large windows with motorized curtains and shades, showing a beautiful scene on the busiest corner in Las Vegas, with all those flashing colored neon signs. Opulent bathroom and spa, with a spa-pool right in the living room, just off the bedroom really, where you could literally get out of bed and walk straight into the pool.
Then I dressed, opened my safe, pulled out my cash for the evening, and headed down to the casino. One of my friends, an executive casino host, was waiting for me downstairs. I had not intended to start my day playing slots, but my friend steered me to a bank of new machines that were in an area reserved for high-rollers. He said that they were relatively new, and that, usually, new machines paid better. (This made sense in those days; today, machines are different, as you can learn from my books on slots).
Victor H. Royer is the Author of 22 books on casino gaming. His newest series of 13 books -- including the new release Powerful Profits from Tournament Poker -- are now available in all major book stores, or from The Gambler's Book Shop at 1-800-522-1777, or at Amazon.Com . Visit his Web site at: http://hometown.aol.com/vicnvegas/myhomepage/newsletter.html
© Copyright 2006 Victor H. Royer. All rights reserved.
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